Hey Guys,
Let's talk about Mimikyu.
(Credit to user Asrikins on Tumblr for art)
Now that two of Mimikyu's biggest potential counters, that being Jirachi and Kyurem-Black, are out of the picture, Mimikyu has been allowed to run free in the current 1v1 metagame. The most damning set that Mimikyu possesses, in the most literal sense, is that of it's Cursekyu set, a wonderful little thing that combines the balance of perish song with the hopelessness of charmstallers/flinchers:
Evil (Mimikyu) @ Ghostium Z/Leftovers
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Curse
- Shadow Sneak/Thunder Wave/Charm/Will-O-Wisp
- Protect
- Substitute
This set is a guaranteed win against opponents who have less than 96 Speed, no taunt, or no recovery. Even with speed control/priority slower mons, who can hit mimikyu with a rock tomb, bulldoze, or flame charge, Mimikyu has the option to either charm the opponent turn 1 to lessen any offensive damage done to mimikyu, or thunder wave and hope for parahax while it subs every turn, which will happen within 4 turns 70% of the time ((0.75)^4)=0.316 (chance of not getting paralyzed 4 turns in a row). After one full paralyze, they can just z curse and win the game. I personally just topped the ladder using a charmkyu set, which proved to be effective with dragon dancers/swords dancers/band users. This is only one side of the coin, however; Mimikyu's more offensive set adds to the reason why I think Mimikyu deserves to be suspected:
Slightly less evil (Mimikyu) @ Mimikium Z
Ability: Disguise
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Play Rough
- Swords Dance/Bulk Up
- Shadow Sneak
- Shadow Claw/Curse/Charm
In a vacuum, this is a generally straightforward set, set up and try to OHKO with Let's Snuggle Forever. The problem comes in when a player is forced to determine which set is which.
Mimikyu and it's sets are designed to be have multiple completely 50/50 decisions for almost every Pokemon that should be able to beat it. Should you sub, expecting the z move or the swords dance, or will the player have curse instead, or will they conserve their z with a regular attack, breaking the sub anyway? Should you sub again, if they are z, or should you try to break its disguise, because they'll just use a regular attack again? If it's cursekyu, should you prepare for thunder wave, charm, shadow sneak, or will o wisp? Once you sub in the face of a cursekyu, the game is basically over. If they curse you, and you attack, should you use your z move immediately or trying to conserve your power, knowing they have the potential to heal to full at any time, or charm you, or halve your speed, or protect in the face of your z move? The long story short is that
you cannot determine how to properly play against any given Mimikyu when you first encounter it. With every other Pokemon, you have a general sense of what must be done to beat a certain Pokemon, and, if you know the meta well enough, you can prepare for every viable and popular option a player can throw against you.
Mimikyu's most effective and popular sets have about a 60/40 split between offensive mimi and cursekyu, which leads to the necessity of a hard read/multiple hard reads, if you aren't suitably prepared, to have a chance at victory, and if you don't read correctly, you more than likely lose, right then and there.
This, by itself, wouldn't be worthy of a suspect. I just wanna make that clear. I can think of many Pokemon (Aggron, Celesteela, Mew, Deoxys Speed) that have radically different and equally viable sets that alternate between stall and offense. However, once you figure out what set they are, you can adequately prepare for the Pokemon with your own answer. However, in Mimikyu's case, the
Disguise Ability is what separates it from the pack. The fact that you need to break its disguise in order to win (Unless your name is Excadrill or Gyarados), gives Mimikyu the time it needs to set up curse, set up swords dance, launch a z move, etc etc. Other stall mons have to worry about the power of the opponent that they are facing while they attempt to set up, but not Mimikyu; it can ruin it's opponent's ability to win before it's even gotten to half health. Eliminating the meaning of Speed and Power for one turn is absolutely insane in a 1v1 meta, and absolutely insane for a Pokemon designed to either cursestall or attack with a Z-Move. It is better than Sturdy. Can we also talk about how there's only one viable mold breaker Pokemon left, besides taunt Gyarados, that can reliably beat Mimikyu, that being Excadrill? Non-taunt Gyarados gets bopped by twave or charm Mimikyu. And with taunt only at 15% usage (20% in 1630), it's not an incredibly powerful deterrent; 15% is the chance to miss Will-o-Wisp, I'd still run that on many Pokemon. Essentially, Disguise eliminates many possible counters that would otherwise overpower Mimikyu before it has a chance to set up, which is a luxury every other stall+offensive mons does not have.
Additionally, just because one specific strategy beats a broken strategy doesn't mean that broken strategy is suddenly balanced. Perish Song, an undeniably unhealthy move in 1v1, was completely countered by taunt, but was banned because
it was impossible to predict whether your opponent would use perish song or an offensive moveset, just based on what the Pokemon was, and preparations to fight one set would leave you completely wide open for the other (gee, doesn't that sound familiar).
In summary, Mimikyu should be suspected due to the combination of it's first-round unpredictable nature, the potential need to hard-read multiple 50/50s in order to beat any given Mimikyu set, and, most of all, because of the free Substitute it gets in the form of Disguise, which allows Mimikyu to do anything it pleases turn 1, for the most part, which has only been magnified due to the loss of two Mimikyu answers, Kyurem-Black and Jirachi
Also,
Council, I feel like this would be the perfect opportunity to see if we, the players, truly know how to handle our own metagame.
Let us have a proper suspect test once more, and only interfere if the results are as indecisive as they were in the past. I have a feeling players will take this situation more seriously after all the drama that has happened.
Share your thoughts, why dontcha. I only used Mimikyu for a day, so this post comes from my experience using it and my experience fighting it. Respond if you think I'm crazy, I am writing this at 3 am.